In my last article, I talked about How Do You Get People To Engage With Reels, one of the points I made was that you should send people to your bio so that when your message connects with your viewer, it’ll increase your engagement. And, they'll be able to learn more about you. When you have a strong Instagram bio, viewers will be more likely to follow you and click through the link you've shared in your bio.
Instagram is a powerful social media platform for artists. Having an eye-catching bio allows you to stand out from the crowd and gets you more engagement with your audience, which could lead to more sales and followers. To maximize the potential of your Instagram profile, follow these simple tips for creating an engaging bio that'll draw people in.
What Should I Put In My Instagram Bio?
You’ll definitely want to include your name, especially if your handle is different. People will search for you by your name and this will ensure they find you. This is one of the easiest things for us to overlook when creating our own bio - that adding our real names to the text will make it so much easier for people to find us.
Location can be great, especially if you have a physical address such as a brick-and-mortar store or you only service a specific area.
Use Emojis In Your Instagram Bio
Remember you only have 150 characters so maximize them with emojis. Not only do they save you space, but they illustrate your message with fewer characters.
Emojis help you stand out from the crowd and are an easy way to connect with your audience and show your personality. For example, artist Annie Hejny uses emojis really well in her bio to demonstrate that she paints commissions and is a forest therapy guide which is a big influence in her work.
Follow her example and use emojis in your bio, especially if they're related to the content itself.
Add A CTA To Your Instagram Bio
Calls to action (CTAs) are a great way to drive engagement with your Instagram bio because they encourage followers to take action on the platform.
Instagram users want to be invited. They want you to tell them what to do next and they’re waiting for you to make it easy for them. This means adding a call-to-action URL in your Instagram bio will help you increase the number of followers on your account by providing more value, and giving people a way to take a deep dive to learn more about your art world.
When You Add Emojis And CTAs To Your Bio, You Boost Engagement
Adding emojis to your Instagram bio is an easy way to help convey your brand personality and message. They’re also great at encouraging people to click on that link in your bio. Here’s an example:
🖼️Free Art? Yes, please. Click here to get it.⤵️
When paired with other strategies, such as CTAs, emoji usage can be even more effective. They also make it easier for users who don't read English well or have difficulty reading small text on their phone screens.
To increase engagement rates, mix it up by using both text and emojis.
Do Links In Instagram Bios Work?
Yes, links in Instagram bios work because they are the only clickable links on the platform at this time. You’ve probably seen Linktree or similar services that allow users to have multiple links when you go to it. This kind of tool is a work-around to address the fact that Instagram only allows one live URL in your bio.
While Linktree-type links are good, I recommend you create a custom one on your own website. This is one quick way to ensure you bring people to your website and it puts fewer links between your readers and your art. It has the added benefit of giving you love from Google which will ultimately drive more traffic to your website. This is SEO better known as “Search Engine Optimization”.
Here are some examples of how artists, By Annie B. and Kate Farrall (my art account), have created link pages on our websites.
Change Up The Text In Your Bio
The great thing about Instagram bios is that they are easy to change as often as you like so they’re always current.
Use hashtags in your bio if they make sense for the bio text and/or audience (e.g., if you travel a lot for art inspiration, maybe add #travelinspired). Test and change them as your art and process change.
Update and change the links you share in your bio according to what’s currently happening in your practice. This might be an exhibition you’re in, an upcoming open studio event, a workshop you’re offering, a podcast you were interviewed for, or an article that was written about your work. Use whatever relevant links that users may be interested in seeing more about. This makes it super easy to tell someone in a post that they can learn more by clicking on the link in your bio.
It also helps to create more engagement with your profile overall since it gives people another reason for liking or commenting on something specific about what's being offered there too.
To increase your engagement on Instagram, what's something you’re inspired to change or add to your bio? Let me know in the comments.